WELCOME TO THE RED CARPET FOR CRUISE SHIPS

The River Elbe

Ship naming ceremonies, port anniversaries, Cruise Days and international trade fairs: The fact that Hamburg is the platform for the cruising industry was a major reason the city was declared ‘Cruise Port of the Year 2012’. 9 cruise ships, 20,000 cruise passengers and 570,000 visitors on three days, a turnover of more than €35 million generated by guests who came to Hamburg specifically for the event and nearly 200 million contacts in mass media. The Hamburg Cruise Days film provides some impressions of this magical event:

2012: Hamburg Cruise Port in Numbers

The 2011 growth rate was again surpassed. All in all, cruise ships visited the Port of Hamburg 160 times (a 36 % rise compared to the previous year), which involved 151 cruise starts and terminations and nine transit visits. The proportion of turnaround passengers that started or ended their journey in Hamburg rose to 89 % (2011: 87,5 %). These figures confirm Hamburg’s position as the most popular German embarkation and disembarkation port in 2012, with the city consequently topping the German cruising port rankings. The trend of dynamic growth witnessed over previous years is set to continue. The total number of passengers will exceed 500,000 (up 16 %). We are expecting 177 calls from ships over the 2013 cruising season, an increase of 8 % against the previous year. Accordingly, Hamburg will once again be the most frequented change-over port in Germany. The volume of transit passengers is expected to reach around 5 %. 22 shipping lines have registered a total of 35 cruise liners in the Hanseatic city for the 2013 season. The Hamburg Cruise Center is looking optimistically towards the future. The half-million passenger volume forecast for 2015 will be achieved as early as 2013.